1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a press-connecting connector, and more particularly to a press-connecting connector with joint terminals, such as a connector for use with a wire harness and a connector used for connecting various electronic equipments.
2. Related art
One conventional press-connecting connector includes a housing as shown in FIG. 6. The housing 1 of this press-connecting connector includes a base plate 2, and a plurality of partition walls 3 are integrally formed perpendicularly on each of upper and lower surfaces of the base plate 2, and are spaced a predetermined distance from one another. A press-connecting terminal 4 is provided between any two adjacent partition walls 3. The press-connecting terminal 4 has a generally U-shaped cross-section, and includes pairs of opposed press-connecting blades 4A, each pair of blades 4A and 4A extending inwardly from opposed inner surfaces of the terminal 4, respectively. For connecting a wire harness W to the press-connecting terminals 4, each wire of the wire harness W is pressed against the associated press-connecting terminal 4 by a press-connecting punch 5 as shown in FIG. 7. When the wire of the wire harness W is thus pressed against the press-connecting terminal 4, each pair of press-connecting blades 4A and 4A cut a sheath of the wire of the wire harness W, and are brought into contact with a conductor of the wire. A cover (not shown) is attached to the housing 1 (to which the wire harness W is connected) to form the connector.
In the above conventional press-connecting connector, however, when connecting the wire harness W to the housing by the use of the press-connecting punch 5, the base plate 2 is flexed by a load, applied from the press-connecting punch 5, since this base plate 2 is thin as shown in FIG. 7, and this results in a problem that the press-connecting operation is unstable. If the thickness of the base plate 2 is increased as shown in FIG. 8 in order to overcome this problem, the amount of a synthetic resin, forming the housing 1, increases, and the degree of shrinkage after the molding is large. As a result, there are encountered problems that there occurs an error in the pitch of the arranged wires and that a sinkmark (recess) 6 is formed in the surface of the molded product.
If such a sink mark 6 develops, the wire press-connecting position varies in an upward-downward direction (indicated by arrow h in FIG. 9), thus inviting a problem that the connection reliability is lowered.